Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault Vita Review

Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault returns to the series' classic feel, camera, controls and weapons, while innovating and giving you a whole new way to play. Even better, the addition of online features means you can experience the fun with your friends.

Worse for wear.

Reviewed on PlayStation Vita

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May 28, 2013

Despite arriving six months later, Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault on Vita is actually less polished than its PlayStation 3 counterpart. This portable version retains most the of the PS3 version’s content and gameplay, but it also introduces a multitude of technical problems. Considering this isn't a great outing for Insomniac’s dynamic duo even at its best (read our original Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault review here), I really can't recommend this version.

The most glaring problem is the visual downgrade, which is jarring even next to most PS3-to-Vita ports. Textures load slowly (if at all), effects like electricity and engine flames look cheesy, and entire environmental elements – like the lovely foliage surrounding the Q-Force base on Balkai – have simply disappeared. Worst of all, player characters have no shadows, which turns platforming into a precarious misadventure.

As far as other glitches go, Full Frontal offers a little bit of everything: The framerate routinely chugs during hectic moments, load times are inexplicably long, and the camera proves to be a little less reliable and responsive than its PS3 counterpart. While none of these issues result in an unplayable game, they certainly make the experience less pleasant than it should be.

Thankfully, all of the truly important stuff remains intact: The platforming, exploration, and wacky firearms we’ve come to expect from Ratchet are still layered on top of an active, on-the-battlefield approach to tower defense gameplay. Trouble is, just as before, it’s a novel spin on the franchise that just doesn't pan out well due to poor balancing and repetitive gameplay. In fact, for every positive that Full Frontal Assault musters up, there seems to be a negative lurking somewhere nearby. The exploration is a blast, but the shooting is a bust. Gradually upgrading defenses feels rewarding, but grinding for bolts proves tedious and stressful.

And sadly, rather than offer new, Vita-specific content to help compensate for technical inadequacies, this version is actually missing content. Competitive multiplayer contains fewer playable avatars, there are no 2v2 matches, local co-op has been cut (obviously), and at this time there’s no cross-play with the PS3 despite earlier promises. It's simply a weaker, inferior version both in quantity and quality of content and features.

The Verdict

If you enjoyed the PS3 version of Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault and you have roughly 2GB of precious space to spare on your Vita, go ahead and download this since, hey, it’s free for you if you already own it for the PS3. But that's pretty much the only scenario that would warrant a download, because between the cut content and significant technical issues, the Vita version is a weaker experience in almost every respect and does nothing to improve what was only an okay game to begin with.